14. Full Circle

I write this post from Bangkok where, 85 days and just over 3000 miles after starting, I’ve come full circle. It sounds like a cliche but it feels like just yesterday that my journey began here. And, with another 35 days or so, there’s still much more to be done!

I noticed this sign while drinking my final coffee in Phnom Penh. Fittingly, a few minutes later, I was back on the road, feeling balanced in many ways. 🚴‍♂️

I knew that shops and services would thin out as I got further and further away from Phnom Penh so I made sure to rehydrate whenever I could. 🥤 

Lots of lovely interactions with young Cambodians on this day. This bunch all told me their names…

…while the girl on the left in this picture, a confident English speaker, told me she hoped to become a police officer when she leaves school. 🏫 

As my plans have changed and I’m now Taiwan-bound, I sought the most efficient route back to Bangkok so I’d be able to connect with my flight in good time. ✈️ 

Which meant crossing central Cambodia on dirt tracks. Which is how I remember the roads were back in 2002. Most of the tracks were hard-packed and easy to ride. Well rested from my days off the bike in Phnom Penh, I covered about 85 miles this day.

It should have been a breeze to wild camp but Sod’s Law decreed that, when I ran out of steam, wanting to stop for the day, 🛑 for the first time in many miles, I was in a well-populated area. So, as I tried to surreptitiously nestle down into a back-of-a-field wild camp, I was sprung by this family! 👮 

Initially I thought they were simply frog-marching me off their land, back to the road, to send me on my merry way. But it soon transpired that they were simply concerned for my safety and were in fact inviting me to camp in their garden. 🪴 

And inviting me to dinner! And beers! 

The sister of my host speaks a bit of (very) broken English and has a German husband who turned up for the gathering. This eased communication somewhat. 

As dinner was put in front of me, I deployed my best manners and waited for everyone else to be served. But, as you can see from the plates, I was the only one eating! 🥣 

This felt very awkward at first but, honestly, I was famished so my tentative eating soon morphed into stuffing myself gluttonously. In a polite way. To show appreciation and respect. 😂 

I would like to add that I did offer to help with the preparation and, cack-handedly, did help with the seasoning and herbs. 🌿 

My camping platform. Slept pretty well. First cockerel crowing at 3:20am but, hey ho, this is SE Asia! 🌍 

Breakfast time for the family’s two cows. 

During dinner, the German guy had asked if I’d like to see the local waterfall the next day. Why not? We agreed to set off at 9am, it’s only a short drive away. I’d expected a quick ‘look and see’ visit, plenty of time for me to ride on in the pm and still get some miles under my belt. But…

…as I got in the car, it was loaded with bag after bag of food, cutlery, crockery. And then, as we made our way towards the waterfall, we stopped to buy a ‘slab’ of beer! If I’m being completely honest, my heart sank a little, as the gap between my expectations of the day and the reality was a gulf. The first of many beers was cracked open at just after 10am! This wasn’t a quick trip to the waterfall, more an alcohol- fuelled picnic! 

I tried, and managed to relax into the day and enjoyed their company and the food and drink but also, at the back of my mind, knew I’d need to extricate myself from them at some point, especially as they were making noises about me staying a further night (which would inevitably entail more beer consumption). I was worrying about loss of progress and, ultimately, missed flights.

So, as we returned home and German guy and wife retired for a siesta, I took the opportunity to say profound and genuinely heartfelt thanks for all they’d done for me, truly above and beyond the call of service. But the show must go on. And it felt really important for me to regain agency over my trip. 🍲 

The next few days saw me make steady progress towards the border. Two days in Battambang were very pleasant (good coffee ☕️). 

Riding into Battambang into headwinds was a bit of a bummer but this truck was going just slow enough for me to match its pace, sit in its slipstream and manage a steady 20mph for about an hour! All those years of watching Formula One races, I was finally able to put some theory into practice. I’m looking at installing DRS on Bertha. If you don’t like F1, just ignore. 🚘 

Do you know what? I’m actually a bit sad about this. Just 14 days after entering Cambodia, 🇰🇭 I was back at the border waving goodbye. The standout feature of the country was the warmth and welcome from the Cambodian people. Just exceptional. 👋 

I didn’t visit Angkor Wat either. It’s like going to Paris and not visiting the Eiffel Tower or le Louvre. Or going to London and not visiting a museum. To Wiltshire and not seeing a single standing stone. 🪨 

However, I’m OK with it. Back in 2002, my twenty-four year old self spent three days exploring the complex in an exhaustive and meticulously planned schedule. It was one of the standout moments of my gap year; perhaps it’s best to leave this memory untainted by a later visit. 

My first stop in Thailand was just 10km from the border and very much a last minute arrangement. With Warm Showers hosts being so few and far between here in SE Asia, I’d gotten out of the habit of checking for hosting opportunities on my route. 🏨 

Luckily, I made last minute contact with Di, and here was my room for the night, in a lovely traditional wooden Thai house. 🏠 After a somewhat fraught ride to the border (really, really hot, lots of lorries up, close and personal, blasts of hot exhausts), I needed some quiet R&R. 🏝️ 

Di lives separately from the biker’s accommodation, just down the road. But she invited me to dinner and off we went to the night market. Di describes her English as broken but we were able to have wide-ranging conversations about history, politics, the environment, human rights and so on. Di has variously worked as a tour guide, supporting refugees and promoting women’s rights working with women in the sex industry in Bangkok. Great talking with her. 

I bid her good night and thank you as she dropped me back at the cyclists’ house. Then promptly messaged her asking if I could stay a second night! I’d hoped we could hang out some more, especially as the next day was a Saturday. 📆 

There was no question that I could stay a second day, Di routinely has cyclists staying year round for various lengths of time. The hosting setup means she doesn’t always meet her guests. I was fortunate that she had free time on this Saturday and she took me out to Sadok Kok Thom, an 11th Century Khmer temple close to the Cambodian border. 🇰🇭 

This helped allay any regrets about missing Angkor Wat and, seemingly little known and with very few visitors, it was a delight to be there. 🛕 

I’m no great student of the history of Thai or Cambodian temples but just walking the complexes, soaking up the atmosphere, and, here, listening to the birdsong from the surrounding forest, was incredible. 🦜

After the temple walk around, a quick picnic, with Di’s dog, Lumduan, in tow. Poor thing has been in the wars with some nasty bites in his shoulder after a fight with a pack member. I was honoured that he’d sit near me, apparently he’s usually nervous with strangers. 🐕 

Driving on from the temple, Di took me to this forest area that, within my lifetime, 40 years ago, was a refugee camp for Cambodian’s fleeing the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot’s despotic regime.  Now, a tranquil and peaceful place, no trace remains of what it once would have been. Which somehow made it all the more eerie. I wouldn’t have wanted to camp there… 🏕️ 

Whoops! We stayed beyond opening time and got locked in! 🔐  We did try to find someone to unlock the gate but nothing doing. So we unravelled and cut some wire to free ourselves. And Di drove me back to the cyclists’ house where, this time, I said a final goodbye.👋 

It had been great hanging out with Di, lots of common ground found and I would describe her as an inspiration. Not in a glib, throwaway sense, more in a I think some of the things she does/prioritises are things that I should too.

Back at the cyclists’ house, I met Robert and Sarah who had arrived earlier in the day, heading in the opposite direction to me, to Cambodia. We spent the evening together, first at a local cafe and then back in the nicely air-conditioned room of the cyclists’ house, sipping a few beers. As with Di, common ground was quickly found and I had massive respect for their commitment to their cycle tour, which is a ‘holiday’ much tougher than they really needed to be doing. It was lovely to hear them speaking so enthusiastically about riding the backroads of rural Thailand. Sounds like they’ve gotten off the beaten track more than I have. 🛣️ 

With all these positive social interactions, I began the next day uplifted and ready to take on the world!🌎 

7-Eleven breakfast of instant coffee and sweet breads.

I had a quick chat with these passing South Korean cyclists. 🚴  I asked, a couple of times, ‘where are you headed today?’

‘We’re going to Thailand’

I decided not to pull rank as an ex-geography teacher and tell them they were already in Thailand. I’ll put it down to the language barrier. 🗣️ 

At the start of the day, as you can see, I was over 200km from Bangkok but, cracking out nearly 150km (92 miles) the deficit was less than 100km by the end of the day. Four coffees across the day helped. Some of which were the sugary iced coffee variety. My poor teeth… 🦷 

Only in Thailand…

This represents a long held ambition! Over the years, I’ve camped in a number of unusual places - fire stations, back gardens, temples, city parks, but never petrol stations. ⛽️ Until this day!

I nearly lost my nerve and cycled on but then thought ‘you’ve got toilets, a cafe, a convenience store, snack stalls right next to you, what else could you need?’.

So I tracked down the manager, explained my intentions, and was granted permission to camp without reservation. Easy!

In actual fact, it was an overcast and sultry night, little drop off of temperatures compared to the day. Not a great night’s sleep. Still, dawn came around soon enough, I had my convenience store breakfast and hit the road again. 

I was in central Bangkok before midday, making it into Sukhumvit where I’d booked a hostel. Sukhumvit is slightly east of the centre, an area I’d never visited in all my time in Bangkok but easily accessible coming from Cambodia. 🇰🇭 

Riding into cities is not my favourite kind of cycling but it’s also not my least favourite. It’s very stimulating to ‘read’ what other vehicles are doing and I quite like getting my ‘elbows out’. But, to be honest, it’s not really necessary to be overly aggressive in Thailand, everyone drives so respectfully. 

Lodging in Sukumvit but I was soon drawn across town to old haunts. Khao San Road!

I will always have a strained relationship with this part of town, but always keep coming back. 

Khao San Road and its environs are tacky, seedy, tawdry and a bit desperate. After dark, walking the streets, jammed with tourists, I wondered whether it had always been like this. My memory tells me it was never so crowded but I don’t trust my memory! 

It remains a unique place and filled with echoes of a younger me, of being a backpacker, staying at various hostels and hotels, now long gone and redeveloped (I believe the first hostel I stayed at charged 60 or 80 baht, which was £1 or £1.50!). During this time, yes, I was excited to be discovering Asia but, honestly, sometimes feeling quite overwhelmed by the ‘big city’. I’ve learned to love it over the years but do recall times when Bangkok was not a happy hunting ground for me. I particularly remember feeling deflated when, after an evening out, I’d return to my dorm and be the first person back! ‘Everyone’s out having fun except me!’. Often big cities, filled with people, are the hardest places to make genuine connections. 🎒 

(Btw, if I’m the first back in the dorm these days it’s a point of pride - more sleep for me!). 

. 

Street food is something of a mainstay in Bangkok. Some of what I’ve had so far has been pretty good, some not so. I’ll keep trying…

Vegetarian allies, I am very much ready to return to the fold when I’m back in the UK. 🇬🇧 

Don’t judge me too harshly… 

This picture tells a story. When I first arrived in Bangkok in 2001, smartphones would have been a madman’s dream!

As I tap out this blog entry on my iPhone, I can only reflect that they have not only changed how we live our lives but also who we are. In my better moments, feeling uplifted and inspired by being ‘on the road’ I hope I’m quite a sociable person, willing to engage with strangers in ‘random acts of communication’ but, overall, I’m sure I’ve retreated more and more into the online/digital world over the years. 🛜

And, I fear, we’ve crossed a threshold, there’s no turning back. 

Love it or hate it, Bangkok offers something that makes it attractive enough for a population of millions. 

A rainy day in Bangkok. Really enjoyed a walk around Benjakitti Park, near my hostel. 🏨 

Ecologically sensitive management with flood mitigation and the city’s climate management in mind. 🌡️ 

I love how that, walking through Bangkok’s urban, concrete jungle, from time to time, you come across a charming old neighbourhood or…

…a street side shrine. 

Invoking the spirit of my younger self that would just walk and walk and walk, all day long - observing, exploring, discovering - on my gap year, I have walked right across the city today. 🏙️ 

Fuelled by Thai Tea.🫖  It’s my new obsession, to find the best Thai Tea. Iced Thai Tea is delicious! But varies in quality, so I’m trying to track down the best vendor. 

Probably my favourite place in Bangkok is Chinatown. Even here is showing signs of gentrification, along the canal sides. But I love how, much of the district hasn’t changed massively over the years… 🇨🇳 

…for better or worse. Here, you’d say worse. ‘Shark fin’s soup’? Are you kidding?!? Do we really need to be eating shark considering the ecological crisis the world faces? And do you really want to eat bird’s nest soup given the proliferation of avian flu in recent years?!? 🤧  To be fair, these signs date from a different age but I believe these dishes are still on the menu. 

Anyway, I digress. And this, of course, is the contradictory reality of Bangkok, 2025, archaic and old fashioned, forward thinking and modern. I’ll just keep trying to go with the flow!